Flashflood
by Words Like Rain
Summary: Blackpaw used to be a part of RiverClan. She used to be. Not anymore. It seems like everywhere she goes, water sweeps over her life, ruining it again & again. Who is she and why has she been chosen for the most dangerous mission yet? Full summary inside


Allegiances so far…

RiverClan

Deputy: Sunstrike-He is a golden tom with white paws and sunny amber eyes

Warrior: Minnowsong-She is a silver tabby she cat with sky blue eyes /apprentice, Rosepaw/

Warrior: Moonheart-She is a pretty pale grey she cat with light blue eyes /mate, Reedclaw/

Warrior: Reedclaw-He is a dark brown tabby tom with yellow green eyes and one white paw /mate, Moonheart/ \apprentice, Spottedpaw\

Warrior: Troutfur-She is a grey and white tabby she cat with pale amber eyes /apprentice, Rockpaw/

Warrior: Oakpelt-He is a ginger, black, and white tomcat with dark green eyes /apprentice, Blackpaw/

Apprentice: Rosepaw-She is a tortoiseshell and ginger she cat with white paws and lovely amber eyes /mentor, Minnowsong/

Apprentice: Spottedpaw-He is a brown, ginger, and black tomcat with white paws and green eyes /mentor, Reedclaw/

Apprentice: Rockpaw-He is a pale grey tabby tom with one white paw and pale amber eyes /mentor, Troutfur/

Apprentice: Blackpaw-She is a pitch black she cat with dark blue/green eyes /mentor, Oakpelt/ (her mentor doesn't really have much to do with her)

Chapter 1

Blackpaw purred. Rosepaw was still as clueless as ever. She could never seem to understand that Blackpaw was not interested in toms. She batted at Rosepaw's ears, knowing exactly when and where she would duck and then flipped her over easily.

Panting, and slightly out of breath, Rosepaw rolled over and glared at Blackpaw. "My fur is ruined!" she mewed indignantly.

"Well what do you expect to happen when you volunteer to spar with me?" Blackpaw questioned. "I'm only the best fighter in the whole apprentice den. "If you really think that your fur is fluffed up beyond any possible repair, just eat a fish."

"But that will make me fat," Rosepaw stated matter of factly. "And I can't have my gorgeous self looking fat when I wake up in the morning."

It was then that Minnowsong intervened. "Now Rosepaw, I'm sure you look fine. Let's talk about your battle skills. You need to focus less on the possibility that you might have a bit of fur sticking up and more on the fact that you're too predictable of an opponent. Blackpaw here saw each and every move coming. You should have ducked the other way and when Blackpaw lost her balance, and made your move whatever it might be."

"Yes Minnowsong," Rosepaw mewed sullenly. "I want a rematch. The first win was pure luck."

"Okay," Blackpaw said certain of her win.

She fluidly leaned towards one side while repositioning her feet as Rosepaw leaped at her. But instead of Rosepaw going for her side as Blackpaw had planned, she went for her back.

The very tips of Rosepaw's claws came out and she began raking Blackpaw's back again and again.

Blackpaw reared herself up and down and up again repeatedly until Rosepaw's grip failed a bit, then she jumped backwards and landed on her back, effectively squashing Rosepaw.

Minnowsong came racing over, furious with Blackpaw. "You don't fight that rough with your Clanmates, especially not during training!"

"She was the one using her claws," Blackpaw tried to protest but was cut off by Minnowsong.

"Her claws were as sheathed as yours or mine!" Minnowsong mewed angrily. "Though honestly, I feel like unsheathing mine."

Blackpaw stared at the unconscious form of Rosepaw. One eye cracked open, giving Blackpaw a satisfied glare and then closed again. She started; Rosepaw wasn't unconscious at all, she was faking. Even more certain that Rosepaw had won but still wanting to prove her point, Blackpaw walked over and jabbed an unsheathed claw into Rosepaw's side.

Rosepaw didn't as much as flinch.

"I-I I honestly th-th-thought that she was awake," Blackpaw stammered under the full force of Minnowsong's glare. Then she just gave up talking and raced downstream next to the stream. When Minnowsong was out of sight, she sat down in a bed of reeds and lay there quietly, breathing hard and trying not to think about what lay in her future.

Nervously, she tried to think about what to say but her mind was frustratingly blank. And then it hit her. Minnowsong was the slow orderly type. She would wait till another cat came to the sandy training area before she left to deliver the news. If Blackpaw could hurry ad get herself on a patrol before the news reached camp, her punishment would be postponed and she would have more time to think it all out.

"Perfect," Blackpaw exclaimed aloud.

But she knew that she would only feel safe when all of this had been resolved.

Quickly, before Minnowsong could spread the news, Blackpaw, ran as fast as she could back to camp. Before she entered, Blackpaw made sure to catch her breath and calm down a bit. She would be suspected otherwise.

Sunstrike, the deputy looked as if he was about to organize a patrol. Just before he could begin to speak, Blackpaw bounced up and began to speak. "I still have a lot of energy left. May I go on the next border patrol?

"Sure," Sunstrike mewed absentmindedly. "I'm organizing one right now. Troutfur, Spottedpaw, Reedclaw, Moonheart, and Rockpaw. You're on the next border patrol. Moonheart, you lead. Oh, and take Blackpaw with you. She still has a lot of energy from her training session with Rosepaw. Hurry, we don't want ThunderClan thinking that we're weak and lazy."

Moonheart nodded and beckoned with her tail for the others to come.

Blackpaw bounced up and down nervously, filling the silence with chatter. "Hey Rockpaw, do you know what kind of bird that is?" She questioned.

Blackpaw couldn't stop talking even when she could see that Rockpaw was clenching his teeth and attempting to not shout out at her to shut up.

"Pause for just one moment," Moonheart said, gesturing towards the swollen stream to their right. "Don't go near that. Random rushes of water will carry you all the way down the stream and away until you either get out or drown. All of the recent rains have increased the chance of this happening. Tread with caution and if you see a big wall of water coming, run for your life." As Moonheart finished speaking, a couple of fat rain drops splashed her pale grey pelt, making dark wet spots.

While Moonheart had been talking, Blackpaw wandered along the edge of the stream, not really listening. The sky darkened as it slowly filled with ominous grey clouds and Blackpaw got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Suddenly, the bank crumbled under her paws and she was thrown into the churning waters of the stream. The icy water shocked Blackpaw into her senses and she began to paddle strongly with her paws. She had never truly been the greatest swimmer and the waves pounded her one after another in fast sequence.

Blackpaw was pulled under the water again and again, using all her strength to battle the water.

Reedclaw made a move to jump in the water and get her out but Moonheart stopped him, fear stamped all over her face. Rockpaw came up on Moonheart's other side and whispered something in her ear. Moonheart closed her eyes and nodded. Then she turned and looked back upstream. Sadness glimmered in her eyes as she turned away.

Spottedpaw came up and started yelling angrily at her, frustration lining every pitch of his voice. Troutfur stood behind, looking up at the sky and whispering fervently.

Blackpaw wondered what they were so scared about. But as she opened her mouth to ask them, a wave crashed down on her and filled her mouth with mud and debris.

Only one desperate word came out of her mouth. "HELP!"

Moonheart just stood there with an expressionless face, eyes turned towards whatever lay upstream. Blackpaw wished she knew what they were thinking. Why couldn't they just hop in real quick and give her a lift? It's not as if they were a bunch of Drypaws.

Blackpaw gasped as her front legs cramped up. Her lungs were on fire and the waves showed no signs of abating. They actually seemed to get bigger the harder it rained.

From the shore, Troutfur gasped and dragged Rockpaw and Spottedpaw backwards to the Thunderclan border. She called Moonheart and pointed her paw at something way upstream.

Moonheart's eyes widened and she screamed something at Reedclaw and raced back to where Troutfur sat. Reedclaw soon followed her.

They were all looking at something upstream. Blackpaw couldn't see past the waves in front of her and she was just about to scream out at them when she saw it.

The huge wave was rushing down the river, gaining speed and leaving white churning waters in its wake. A strong current had already swept her way downstream and she could only see the slightest bit of grey through the sheets of slashing rain.

This is it, Blackpaw thought. This is how I'm going to die.

And then the wave hit her. For a split second, Blackpaw didn't know up from right and she began to swim, the water getting colder and darker. Then Blackpaw realized that she was going the wrong way and started to swim upwards, her lungs aching.

She could feel the wave pushing her back down but Blackpaw managed to struggle to the surface for just long enough to grab a quick breath of air and then she was tugged back under.

Water pounded against her body and Blackpaw lost all sense of direction. Even though her legs were heavy with fatigue, she kept on swimming, afraid that if she stopped, the water would pull her to the bottom of the river and keep her there forever.

Blackpaw struggled and struggled against the water but she was making no progress. Her lungs screamed for air but the current was too strong.

She went limp and scraped against the bottom of the river, sharp stones cutting into her side. An idea struck her and Blackpaw pushed herself off the river bottom as hard as she could.

Just as her vision was fading to black, Blackpaw snatched another quick breath of air. This time, she managed to stay at the surface for a bit, breathing hard and fast and paddling for her life.

Fatigue pushed at the corners of her mind, exhausting her physically as well as mentally. It took all of her strength just to continue paddling and breathe even.

Finally, Blackpaw just couldn't take it anymore. She didn't have any family, any friends, and any reason to continue living. StarClan would be a welcome break from hunger and sickness and pain and drowning. Blackpaw had never liked water anyways.

Gradually, she stopped paddling and let herself sink slowly into the rushing brown water. Blackpaw watched faintly from somewhere vague in her mind as silver bubbles floated up and away to the surface.

She felt heavier and heavier and was just about to close her eyes for good when a lithe, ginger form with dark green eyes spoke her name. "Blackpaw." Her eyes opened wider.

The ginger she cat spoke again. "It is not your time to die. You still have your destiny waiting to be completed and yet here you are, at the bottom of a river, feeling as if you're ready to die. You must continue to fight the river."

"An end is to the water is coming soon and if you get caught there, the water isn't going to be the only thing that ends. You must go NOW!"

Somehow, Blackpaw managed to struggle upwards. When she got to the surface, clean air pulled its way into her lungs, forcing the muddy water out.

The orange cat had disappeared but Blackpaw hadn't forgotten her warning. She shook her head a bit to clear it. The bank sloped downwards over there and maybe, just maybe she could climb up it to dry land.

Paws churning through the swift flowing water, Blackpaw inched her way towards the nearby bank. Thunder rumbled somewhere nearby and Blackpaw swam all the faster. As the bank got bigger and bigger, Blackpaw finally scraped it with one paw.

Blackpaw dug her unsheathed claws deep into the crumbly edge and hauled herself upwards with all of the last of her strength.

Evan slower than when swimming, she made her way up the bank and onto the grass beside it. But that wasn't far away enough. Finally, she dragged herself under the trees and passed clean out.

Her deep sleep was disturbed only by images of the ginger she cat flashing over and over again and eventually, even that blurred into nothing.


End file.
